Category: Blogs

Property rights, data, and prosperity in Africa

By Thomas Koch

One of the biggest obstacles to wealth creation and greater economic prosperity in Africa has to do with land ownership. Overcoming this obstacle will require better data collection, aggregation, and transparency.

International investigation into Ukraine war crimes is Kremlin’s worst nightmare

By Dmytro Kuleba

The International Criminal Court looks set to begin an investigation into war crimes in Ukraine since 2014, opening the way for a trial that could eventually hold Russia to account for its six-year war against Ukraine.

How the Federal Reserve just set the terms for the 2021 recovery

This year was perhaps the most ambitious in the history of the US Federal Reserve. To weather the financial effects of the pandemic, the Fed kept interest rates low and injected an unprecedented amount of funds into the economy.

Europe’s new legislative proposals mark a big ‘first move’ on tech-market power

By Eileen Kannengeiser and Jörn Fleck

On December 15, the European Commission unveiled its long-anticipated legislative proposals—the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act—in a move that may further deepen transatlantic divides over digital commerce.

Event recap | Technology policy and leadership in 2021

By GeoTech Center

A discussion featuring The Honorable Secretary James F. Geurts, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development on how leadership will change in the next digital decade.

Event Recap: “The Nine Lives of Pakistan” with Declan Walsh and Shuja Nawaz

By Atlantic Council

On December 15, 2020, the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center in partnership with the American Pakistan Foundation hosted a book talk with author and journalist Declan Walsh on his new book, The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Divided Nation. The event was moderated by South Asia Center distinguished fellow Shuja Nawaz.

FAST THINKING: The Fed caps its most important year ever

By Atlantic Council

The Fed increased QE to unprecedented levels to keep financial fallout from the pandemic at bay. That, combined with the Fed’s move to lower its benchmark interest rate to zero, made this the most important year in the history of US monetary policy.

The top ten risks and opportunities for 2021

By Mathew Burrows, Robert A. Manning

COVID-19, the kind of “grey swan” event that is predicted but never pinpointed in time, finally came calling in 2020. Drawing on years of foresight experience at the US National Intelligence Council, we are assessing the top 10 risks and opportunities in the new year, for the US in particular, but with global implications.

To succeed, intra-Afghan talks must defer to the non-ideal

By Muska Dastageer

The negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban should just as much center on the question of whether we should ground political morality in a vision of a distinct Islamic polity (that of the Taliban or the Afghan government), or a non-ideal mode of Islamic governance reflecting the second-order and third-order preferences of the parties.

Lessons from a Privacy Shield post-mortem on Capitol Hill

By Kenneth Propp

A hearing on the consequences of the European Court of Justice's invalidation of the EU-US Privacy Shield illuminated the deepening transatlantic divide over data transfers, and it highlighted the early challenge the subject looks to pose for President-elect Joe Biden’s administration, which is eager to repair US-EU relations.